I am indebted to the class. That kindness has been a very great encouragement while I have been going on with the preparation of these lectures; it furnishes me with most agreeable recollections, and the hope of a recurrence of your friendliness, if a similar intercourse should hereafter be renewed. TRAGIC POETRY. LECTURE I.* King Lear. THE subject which I ask you to carry in your thoughts during this brief course of lectures is "Tragic Poetry, especially as illustrated by the four great dramas of Shakspeare. I do not propose to enter upon a strictly critical examination of these tragedies. I dwell upon them as they are illustrative of the aim and the scope of tragic poetry. I wish to inquire, how a true poet deals with the human heart when he awakens its solemn sympathies, and why it is that such sympathies-the sentiments of pity, sorrow, and even anguish-are stirred within the soul by the agency of the imagination. When I speak of the four great dramas of Shakspeare, I trust it is understood, that I am not expressing merely a private preference of my own-an individual judgment. Universal consent has recognised them as *December 6th, 1842. |